GHR: The Christian Life - The Faith of a Child

And he said: "I tell you the truth, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. Therefore, whoever humbles himself like this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven…” Matthew 18:3-4

During our trip to Africa, we visited a slum area in a village outside of Mbale-town. The main trade (and vice) of this area was a grain alcohol made from fermented corn. We met a small congregation inside the area who offered hope to their community. Many of the women participated in a Woman’s Enterprise project in which they learned how to form small businesses to sustain their families. The church was growing and truly beginning to make a difference in their small community.

But the amazing story behind the church left me awed at the mysterious way God works. As we sat and listened to testimonies and songs, a large group of children joined the meeting on the floor directly across from us. The pastor later told us they called the church the children’s church. A missionary visited this slum some years before and began the church with a seemingly solid foundation. Many in the community came to Christ, including children. However, at some point the missionary left and slowly the church began to dwindle as the members slipped back into their previous way of life. The children, however, remained.

And they prayed.

They prayed for their parents, their teachers, their community and their church. They prayed for God to save their community. They prayed until the adults began returning to the church.

We often think about the phrase “faith like a child” as all about being simple, and in comparison to being complex, it is. But just because it is simple, does not mean it lacks depth. Children are persistent, single-minded and determined. To have faith like a child doesn’t mean you follow along unthinking because you were told to. It doesn’t even mean having faith will always be easy and carefree. Becoming like little children means to allow ourselves complete dependence on God because we trust Him and love Him. It means clinging to Him when we are scared or we don’t understand what’s going on around us. It means pursuing Him with a single-minded focus, unrelenting because we long to just sit in His lap and be with Him.

Photo: Children's Church in Uganda (2004)

GHR: Who Is God - Christ is Sufficient

For me, the sufficiency of Christ was the most profound lesson I learned on our trip. Let me approach this from a couple angles.
1) As I mentioned in my last post , we expected to minister to the people we encountered. After all, we were from the United States. We own plenty; the Africans have little. I don’t think we realized the arrogance of our mindsets until we realized how little we did have to offer. For one, the needs are so overwhelming that we didn’t even know where to begin. Additionally, we found ourselves being served more than we were able to serve. Families sacrificed their only meat for the month, so we could have a meal that we didn’t need. Our hosts gave us chairs, while everyone else sat on the floor. Children serenaded us with songs prepared in advance for our arrival. It impacted all of us deeply. I was completely humbled by the fact that I had absolutely nothing to offer, although I thought I was going to be some sort of hero, serving them. All I had to offer was Christ, and He was sufficient.

2) We visited many Christian communities during our visit. One such group was a church comprised of people suffering from HIV/AIDS. They banded together as a community because their communities had rejected them. In East Africa, AIDS is a socially isolating disease, which is a major part of the problem. Several people shared their testimonies with us. They talked about the lack of access to proper medications, the lack of food to eat - not only so they wouldn’t be hungry, but so the drugs they were able to take didn’t make them sicker, the lack of clean water and the lack of love from their families and former communities. But I don’t believe they shared these problems with us to gain our pity. Their testimonies didn’t stop there. They talked of their love for God who watches over them, who cares for them when no one else had and who they can’t wait to see when they leave their earthly bodies. Then they sang praises...praises from the lips and hearts of people whose God is sufficient for them. As our group debriefed that evening we could barely talk about our experience. As I sit here and type this, I can hardly keep from becoming emotional all over again. From an earthly point of view, these people had no reason to be joyful, and yet their love, their joy and their hope was more profound than ANY place I have ever been. He alone is sufficient.

3) Lastly, the so-called title of this little blog series came from my lowest point during the entire trip. I lay on my bed in a grass hut in Sudan, and it was about half way through the trip. I saw and experienced so much in those first three weeks and the weight of it all began to press down on me. I cried out to God, “I can’t do this, Lord. I don’t know how in the world to love these people. They are nothing like me. I have nothing to offer them. I can’t live in a grass hut. I miss running water. I don’t like the bugs. I’m tired. I don’t know how to even make it through the rest of this trip.” And I recalled the verse in Philippians, chapter four. We often quote verse 13 (I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me) as a sort of mantra that “we can do it”, but we pull it out of context. Verses 12-13 say, “...I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want. I can do everything through him who gives me strength.” What is Paul saying? Christ is sufficient. He is sufficient in any situation we are in, and His sufficiency is what gets us through.

I know this is a long post, but this lesson was monumental to me. I’ll leave you with a few pictures and words that I shared during our reports back to the churches who supported us. I’d love for you to comment on how you have found Christ to be sufficient for you.


Where we expected to find despair...we found HOPE.



Where we found death and sorrow, we also found LIFE and JOY.



Where we found the fatherless, we found the FATHER.


We found that we are inadequate. We have nothing to offer ourselves, but Christ is SUFFICIENT. Philippians 4:12-13

Photo: Church service at AIDS church, Rwanda (2004); Congregation at AIDS church, Rwanda (2004); Genocide Memorial, Kigali, Rwanda (2004); Coffins holding at least 10 people each from genocide, Kigali, Rwanda (2004); Street children, Rwanda (2004); Sudanese orphanage, Sudan (2004); Family watching, Rwanda (2004)

GHR: Who God Is - God is Sovereign

Three years ago in July, our team of nine boarded planes in Texas and California headed toward Minneapolis, MN to reunite, and then on to Africa for a six-week exploratory mission trip. We were eager, excited and ready to take on anything that came our way, just so long as we got to see first hand the needs in Africa and minister to the people we encountered. Little did we know that our first obstacle would manifest itself as a “mechanical difficulty” on our plane in the US. That delay created a ripple effect in our flight schedules, and we ended up stranded in Amsterdam overnight. In order to keep all nine of us together, the ticket agent booked us on a flight to Nairobi, Kenya (East Africa) via Accra, Ghana (West Africa) instead of a direct flight. Note #1 - Never allow your flight plans to be redirected to the other side of the continent of Africa. Wait for a direct flight. That little detour ended up costing us 3 more days (for reasons too long to explain here). Note #2 - Don’t leave the airport without the proper visas and paying the proper entrance fees...even if the airline agents tells you it’s okay. Immigration does not appreciate that.

What a discouraging start! We missed the time we had planned in Nairobi, and would have to leave immediately for our next destination in Rwanda. As our team prayed over and discussed our frustration, we were reminded of God’s sovereignty over our trip. We had barely even begun, and in our minds we had already taken over control. Thankfully, God lovingly reminded us who’s trip it really was before we travelled very far.

We also realized that we needed the rest we found in Amsterdam before our difficult journey. The time of preparation before our trip had been, for many, a stressful time, particularly as the final dollars of our support came in literally days before we left. Additionally, readying our households for a six-week absence had been an enormous task of its own. God prepared this time of rest for us - in an amazing hotel - when we didn’t even realize we needed it. Indeed, His plan is best, even when we don’t immediately understand (or agree!).

Our time in Ghana was really a unifying time for our group. Our adventure through the airport, among the crowd and in a stressful situation helped us see how we could better work together and support one another. As we sat in a compound outside the airport, in the dark and in a foreign country that was not part of our plan, we had to admit our complete dependence on Him. We were tired, scared, confused and frustrated. At exactly the moment of our deepest emotions, we heard praise and worship songs that we knew - in English - wafting over the radio of the armed guard protecting the compound. We were assured of God’s presence and His Sovereignty.

When we finally arrived in Nairobi, we exited immigration with little hope of finding our luggage, which should have arrived three days before. As we glided down the escalator, we were astounded to see ALL of our luggage - every single piece of it - stacked up in a neat little pile waiting for us. He is sovereign even over the tiniest details.

All of these precious reminders were just in the first five days of our trip. God displayed for us His Sovereignty throughout the entire time, and I am still left in awe of His plan and His provision.

Photo: Praying in the Minneapolis Airport, Minnesota (2004)

Grass Hut Reflections

A recent post by Craver reminded me of a little book I started to write about my experience in Africa a couple years ago. My working title was “Grass Hut Reflections” because it was while lying in a grass hut in Sudan that I hit my lowest point (and greatest spiritual insight) during the six-week trip. I haven’t done anything with the work I started on that book (which wasn’t much more than a table of contents and some pictures), and I was thinking that the heart for Africa part of my life is not very evident on my blog...so I thought I would take one chapter per week for the next several weeks and post on it. I’ll aim to do it on Tuesdays, but I can’t say for sure I’ll be super consistent.

Photo: Grass Hut, Sudan (2004)